Pretending to Not Feel Alone
by ariamouramara
Summary: Cat is moving from sun shine city L.A. to go live with her Uncle Alaric in the mysterious Mystic Falls, after her parents untimely death. While struggling with the loss, she learns a lot about the secrets of the hometown of her mother. Better watch your back, because you don't know what could be out there, lurking in the dark. (Will be drama, horror, romance, and friendships.)


**Hello! This is a Vampire Diarie's/Victorious story! It's about a slightly OOC Cat in Mysticfalls as an Elena type character. Cat's mom, dad, brother, and her are all in an accident and Cat is the only survivor. (I know really sad) So now Cat has to leave her friends in L.A. to go live with her Uncle, Alaric Saltzman I'm not sure yet about which characters will be in this story but it will mostly be Vampire Diaries based. Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries or Victorious!**

* * *

Laughter.

Yells.

Screams.

A flash of blue eyes.

These are the things I remember as I fight to wake up.

I open my eyes to the stinging pain of light to see I'm laying on top of damp grey little rocks. Where am I?  
Something cold hits my feet and I struggle in pain to look back and I see that I'm half in the water of what looks to be a lake.  
I couldn't tell you how I ended up like this if I tried.  
I just know something bad had happened.

Everything hurts.  
My arms, legs, back, and head.  
**Ouch** my head!

I slowly sit up and wince. With a shaking hand I reach for my forehead and feel the hot red liquid that is my blood. I can't see the cut but it doesn't seem to bad because I'm not bleeding much. I crawl slowly out of the water and across the pointy cold rocks underneath me. I don't think I should stand up but I try anyways. I feel like I way a million pounds and standing proves to be difficult but I manage to stay on my feet.  
I glance around to get a feel of where I am. I was correct about there being a lake, and stretching across it is a bridge. It's still daylight so I have to squint my yes to see the top of the bridge, and thats when I notice the rail looks busted and I must have been in an accident.  
I look into the dark waters but I can't see anything to give me a clue of what happened. But then I see it.  
The shiny roof of my dads red car peaking out of the water.  
I think really hard and then I remember that my mom, dad, brother, and I were on our way to my recital. Something was in the road so my dad swerved...  
_My family.  
_My heart races and I let out a gasp. "No." I think. Against my body's will I break into a run for the water.  
"MOM! DAD!" I scream as I splash threw the lake towards the car. With in seconds I fall but I fight to get back up and beneath my screams I can hear sirens. Help is coming.  
_But are they to late?  
"HELP!"_ I scream in a strained voice as I get into the deeper water. It's up to my waist now and I'm trembling but I push myself to keep moving. The car is already gone as I look back at it and all thats left is bubbles.  
"NO!" I scream again and again. Maybe their okay. Maybe they got out. I look around again and all I see are a mess of cop cars, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, but none of them are my mom or dad or brother.  
"Frankie!? Mom!?" I call out as someone grabs my arm.  
"Miss are you okay?" says a deep voice.  
I whirl around to see a grey haired man standing next to me with a red jacket that says 'EMT' in big black letters and I'm trying to speak but what I'm saying doesn't even make sense to me, "Car...r-red...carr. M-mom...Frank...my dad... c-car...where-" I can't finish what I say because everything is going blurry and I feel dizzy.  
A flash of blue eyes keeps replaying through my head but I can't picture a face. Did someone save me? I look around but my world is a haze. I grab the paramedics shoulder for support.  
He touches my shoulder and I hear a crack. Thats when everything goes black.

* * *

**Three Months Later**

In the past three months I must have said "I'm fine." a million times but I've never meant it once.

I've lost my _family_. And now, today, I'm leaving my _friends_ too.

"I'm gonna miss you Cat." a sobbing Tori says to me as she brings me into a hug. I hug the skinny brunette back lightly and look over her shoulder at my row of friends waiting behind her to say goodbye.  
I'm officially moving to Virginia to go live with my Uncle Alaric, and my flight is in an hour. I previously shipped all of my stuff there over the past month, as well as some of my mom, dad, and brothers stuff to remember them by, so that way I could travel light on the day I left. So all I had in my home to wear to the airport was a pair of black yoga pants, red converse, and one of Frankie's loose band t-shirts that looks like a short dress on my 100 lb 5" foot frame.  
**_'My home.'_**I think. Except its not anymore.  
"I'm gonna miss you too." I say as we let go and I move down the line of solemn faces.

Andre looks at me sadly for a minute before pulling me into a crushing hug. "Ouch." I say instantly.  
"Sorry Lil Red." the tall dark boy says as he lets go but I pull him back into a hug. With my head on his shoulder I hear him sniffle a few times before we separate.  
Trina is next and she quietly mutters, "Bye Cat." before giving me a quick hug. I'm surprised she is even here, we weren't very close. But I'm glad none the less.

Beck, who is grinning, picks me up into a hug and I look at him curiously. "Wanna know why I'm smiling?" he says in my ear. "Why?" I ask curiously. "Because I know this isn't goodbye." he whispers before kissing my head and letting me down back on my feet. I smile gratefully at him and mouth 'Thank you', Beck always knows what to say to make others smile.

Robbie is last and he looks odd standing at the end of my driveway, I think it might be because of the absence of his puppet, Rex. Robbie is the only guy openly crying and once I get to him his eyes are red and puffy behind his thick framed glasses. "Please don't cry Robbie." I say sweetly as I hug him. "I'm coming back to visit on Halloween!" I add trying to cheer him up.  
"Thats in two months." he whines hugging me tighter. "I'm _really_ going to miss you Caterina." Robbie adds. The way he says this makes my heart ache. Everyone knows he has a massive crush on me but I never really felt the same way. Maybe once I did a little, but I didn't want to date someone in our friend group and than ruin it for everyone if things ended badly.  
"I'll miss you the most." I whisper as I pull away and immediately regret it, I'm certainly not making things easier this way.

I open the door to Jade's black car to reveal a seemingly okay Jade. She made me promise I would let her drive me to the airport so she could be last to say goodbye. I was always closest with Jade, we had known each other the longest after all. I look back at my friends and my little yellow house and do my best to put on a smile.  
If there is one thing I have learned over the past few months, its that: _Smiling doesn't always mean you're happy. Sometimes, it simply means that you are a strong person._

"Bye!" I say as Cat like as I can before getting in the car. As Jade slowly drives down my street I wave to my friends who all wave back, and when we turn the corner I stop smiling and burst into tears. I'm not afraid to cry in front of Jade because we get each other in that way. I don't have to put up an act around Jade, because she is stronger than them in a way. Maybe because in her own way she understands.

I have calmed down for the most part by the time we get to the airport. I step out of the car and Jade comes up to me to say goodbye. Jade hates hugs but she welcomes this one openly. "Goodbye Jadey." I say.  
"I just want you to know... even though I'm mean to you sometimes... you are my best friend." Jade says sadly. I laugh slightly at her comment. "I know. Your mine too." I say and I start crying all over again. Jade laughs but then this time she cries too.

* * *

*raspy voice over pilot radio* "Passengers, we have now arrived to our destination. Welcome to Mystic Falls, Virginia! Please exit the plain in an orderly fashion. Have a great day!"

I jerk awake to the loud noises of people getting off the plane. I stretch my legs and yawn before standing and struggling with everyone else to get off.  
Within 30 minutes I'm walking out of the airport with a small bag in hand.  
"Cat!" calls a 31 year old man with light drown hair making his way over to me.  
"Hi Alaric." I say greeting my uncle. He was my moms younger brother and now also my legal guardian. He's tall and lean at 6''1. He looks old for only being 31 but I'm guessing the stress of becoming the parent of a 16 year old girl over night can do that to you. The most striking thing about him other than his dark grey eyes, is the tattoo on his right hand.  
"Good thing you have such bright red hair, it was easy to spot you." Alaric jokes and I laugh slightly.  
"I was actually thinking about getting rid of that." I add as he leads me to his blue Chevy truck.  
The car drive to his home is pretty awkward, I didn't expect much less. He hasn't seen me that much since I was 12 and my whole family picked up and moved from Virginia to L.A. My mom wanted a change of scenery I guess.

After a while the car stops in front of the vaguely familiar house my mother and Alaric both grew up in. They inherited it when my grandparents passed about a 5 years ago but my mom let Alaric have it. It was a beautiful white house with two stories and a deck that wraps all the way around.  
"No driveway?" I question as I unbuckle my seatbelt.  
"No, uh, this house was built in the early 1800's, before cars, so no drive way or garage. It's more modern on the inside though." Alaric replies as he steps out and looks for the house key on his key chain. Alaric is a history teacher so he knows a lot about all that stuff.  
I make my way into the house and although everything here is almost the same as it was when I visited frequently here some four years ago, I feel very out of place.  
"I put all of your stuff in the last room on the left." Alaric says as he walks into the kitchen. "It was uh... It was your mothers room. I hope thats okay." he adds a bit more solemn.  
"It is. Thank you." I say with a small smile before making my way up the creaky old stairs.  
I reach my mom's old room, or now my room, and see that all my pictures are put up and the bed is made and my all of the books and CD's I sent are neatly stacked on a white bookshelf. I know Alaric must have spent a lot of time doing all this for me too feel more comfortable.

Some things in the room are my mother old things too.  
The twin bed.  
The dressers.  
The sheer maroon curtains on the large bay window.  
Even the mirror by her connected bathroom.  
I look at myself in it now and find it weird to think that when my mom was 16 she looked into the same mirror.  
Just like I am right now.

*Knock knock*

The sudden noise startles me. I quickly sit down on the bed and look at the door. "Come in."  
Alaric opens the door and steps in. "I figured you might be hungry." he says walking in with a paper plate holding a slice of pepperoni pizza.  
I wince slightly and bite my lip. "I should've told you earlier, but I'm kind of a vegetarian..." I say feeling guilty. He wouldn't have known, I only decided on the change in 9th grade. Not long after I died my hair red.  
Alaric sighs and scratches his head. "Man I suck at this." he says with a chuckle.  
I laugh and take the plate. "I'll just pick off the pepperoni."  
"I'll get better at this. I promise." Alaric smiles and turns to walk out. He hesitates a moment once he is at the door and turns back to look at me very seriously.  
"I know I already have said this before, but... I'm sorry for your loss Cat." he says his voice cracking slightly.

I've heard those words so many times that they have lost their meaning to me, but when Alaric says them I know he means them. I sigh and look down at the pink and white floral pattern. "No I'm sorry." I say sympethetically before taking a deep breath and looking back up at him to meet his eyes.  
"It was your loss too."  
Alaric nods in silent thanks and closes the door on his way out.

I'm left by myself in the last place I thought I would ever be.  
Mystic Falls, Virginia.  
In the house my mother grew up in.  
In my mothers very bed she slept in for years.  
And I'm thankful.

I kick off my shoes and lay down in the pink cotton fluff of the bed.  
I didn't even realize until now that I'm crying. Crying for the loss of my family all over again.  
I spot something on the cherry wood bed-frame and sit up. In the far right corner, in delicate cursive writing, someone carved in:

_Breathe, eat, sleep, wake up, and do it all over again until one day, it's just not as hard anymore._

I smile because I know it must have been my mother who wrote that. I think on the quote as I drift to sleep holding my purple giraffe stuffed animal.

* * *

**What did you think? Please tell me in my reviews! Next chapter will be starting school...**


End file.
